Tearing It Up in The Dirt!

by Duane Walker, LBC Team Louisville

A small but active group of mountain bikers racing for Team
Louisville have been tearing it up in the dirt this season. Nine
different racers have flown the team colors at events around the
region so far, with great results.

Blaine Heppner has by far been the most active with over 10
races entered this season so far. In his first year of racing,
Blaine jumped right into the Sport class and started dominating
the local scene with several overall wins of his class at local
races and several top-ten finishes at larger DINO Series races,
allowing him to race in the ultra-competitive Sport-Open
category. He has been entering the Expert class at the local
races with good results, and plans to upgrade his license at the
end of the season.

Brad Wunderlich has continued to show the young punks what an
older guy can do, scoring top-ten finishes in several races this
year. At the Capitol View race he won the Sport class overall,
then turned around and took second in the Single-Speed category.

Don Parr returned to the trails after time off due to a shoulder
injury sustained last year. Also a Sport Class racer, he managed
a 4th-place age-group finish at the DINO Ferdinand race and
powered to a 6th-place overall/2nd age-group placing at Capitol
View. Itís good to have him back in the mix and we expect great
results from him next season.

Brian Rhodes set the example at Waverly this year winning the
Beginner Class in his first ever mountain bike race. Mitchell
Kersting won the Sport Class overall at this local-favorite race
even though he was on a single speed. What an animal! Team
Louisville was represented by six guys in green at this race.

Joe Collins had two great finishes locally before heading out to
Colorado for the summer. While there he entered the Silver Rush MTB
race, a grueling 50-mile event that starts at 10,200 feet of elevation
and climbs to over 14,000 feet. Joe placed 36th overall out of over
300 who started the race.

With cyclocross season looming, our MTB racing season will be
winding down soon. We hope to field an even larger group next year as
we encourage more of our teammates to join us in off-road racing.